Sheldon Hall

Humanitarian, actor, author, health and wellness ambassador and philanthropist Hill Harper, best known for his role as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: NY, delivered the keynote speech for SUNY Oswego’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on Jan. 30 in the Sheldon Hall ballroom. Winner of three NAACP Image Awards for Best

On Feb. 13, the Alumni and University Development office held its second annual Love a Donor Day on campus. Hundreds of students wrote personal thank you cards to express their gratitude to donors who support The Fund for Oswego. Hundreds more stopped by information tables around campus to learn how gifts to the fund support scholarships, activities and programs that directly

In the Spring 2014 issue, the Sheldon statue can be found in the middle, left side of the photo of Professor Juan Perdiguero on page 28. Grand prize winner of a College Store gift certificate and Sheldon Hall print is April Stokes ’00. Winning Sheldon Hall prints are Nancy Lause Middlebrook ’72, Rob Daniels ’89, Chuck Durante ’73,

What an amazing photo by alumnus Jim Russell ’83! Click on the above image to make it larger. If you would like to set as your desktop background, right-click and ‘save as’ to your computer. Then right click on the file and ‘set as desktop background.’

Approached at dusk, it’s a breathtaking sight—SUNY Oswego’s landmark building bathed in a splendid luster. The cupola is suffused with a stunning glow, taking its place among the stars far above the campus and city. The Normal Building. Old Main. Sheldon Hall. Whatever name alumni remember it by, Oswego’s signature structure marks a 100-year milestone

Who better to feature in this special Sesquicentennial issue’s Faculty Hall of Fame than cover subject Oswego Founder Edward Austin Sheldon? Certainly he was among the most esteemed faculty members at the college, leaving a legacy that has touched generations (see excerpts from Sheldon’s autobiography starting on p. 18).

With the exception of a brief period in the 1980s, when it was removed for cleaning and repair, graduates from the 1920s and beyond can all remember one thing in common: the copper statue of founder Edward Austin Sheldon that stands in front of the building that bears his name, the college’s Old Main.

Whether it’s actually crafted from the melted pennies donated by New York’s schoolchildren — as college lore has it — or paid for by their collected coins, the statue dates back to 1899. It depicts Sheldon instructing a small child, using the Oswego Method of object teaching. The founder holds a sphere, which was one of the objects that made up the tool kit of instructors in the Pestalozzian Method, which Sheldon popularized among American educators.

On Sept. 20, 1944, the First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, visited Oswego. Among those lucky enough to greet her on the steps of Old Main (now Sheldon Hall) was Betty Reid Gallik ’45, who was president of the Women’s Athletic Association.

“I remember they had a few of us who were president of our groups shake hands and talk with her,” she says. Also greeting Roosevelt were the late Betty Burden ’45 and the late M. Carol McLaughlin ’45.